


Sleep Deprived

by Brumeier



Series: Bite Sized Fic 2019 [73]
Category: Alice (TV 2009)
Genre: Babies, Established Relationship, Exhaustion, F/M, Fatherhood, Prompt Fill, Sleep Deprivation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-30
Updated: 2019-11-30
Packaged: 2021-03-03 10:34:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 436
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21617563
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brumeier/pseuds/Brumeier
Summary: LJ Comment fic for Random AO3 Tags:any, any, exhaustionHatter really needs some sleep, but he can't help being over-vigilant with a new baby in the house.
Relationships: Alice Hamilton/Hatter
Series: Bite Sized Fic 2019 [73]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1250552
Comments: 9
Kudos: 22
Collections: Bite Sized Bits of Fic from 2019





	Sleep Deprived

“David? You okay?”

Hatter jerked awake, elbow skidding into his teacup and sending it to the floor, where it shattered and sent a spray of cold tea over Hatter’s shoe. He stared down at it, feeling slow and stupid as he tried to make sense of what just happened.

“What?”

Edward chuckled. “Still not sleeping at home, I see.”

Hatter tried to shake the cobwebs out of his head and rubbed at eyes that felt as if they’d been scoured with sand. “How can I?”

The hat shop was half Hatter’s and would be fully his when Edward retired. Hatter loved it, he truly did, but it was harder now being away from home. Reflexively he checked his phone, calling up the baby monitor app. Edward peered at it over his shoulder.

“Sleeping like a baby,” he chuckled. “As you should be, my boy.”

Althea was in her crib, hands curled into fists and mouth moving slightly as she slept. There was no person as important to Hatter in this world or his own, except Alice of course, and it was his responsibility to make sure his little baby girl was safe and secure at all times. 

A holdover, Alice suggested, from the way he’d grown up in Wonderland City. But she’d been unable to deny that Manhattan had its own share of troubles, and any new father worth the kettle he cooked in needed to be vigilant. 

“You won’t be any use to either of them if you don’t sleep,” Edward pointed out. He reached around Hatter for the roll of paper towels they kept beneath the counter and handed it to him.

Hatter stared at it. “What am I to do with this? Use it for a pillow?”

“Your tea.”

Edward pointed to the mess on the floor at Hatter’s feet and for just a moment he wondered who’d broken one of his favorite teacups. It was a miracle he remembered his own name.

“Sleep would be good,” Hatter reluctantly admitted. He cleaned up the spilt tea and the shards of porcelain.

“Go home,” Edward insisted. “I can handle the shop for a couple of days. Get some sleep before you walk in front of a bus.”

“Alice would have my hide for that,” Hatter agreed. “Thanks.”

As it happened, Alice had his hide anyway because Hatter fell asleep on the subway and after three hours with no word, she’d used some app to track his phone and was there to wake him up when he was still several stations out.

Less vigilance, then, and more sleep. Even Hatter had to agree to that.


End file.
